Hard to tell when we’ll get snow. I wouldn’t expect it for another month at least. I hope the weather will be beautiful for your trip here, but be aware that there is a lot of smoke everywhere in western Montana.

Finally a season that’s on time! I hiked yesterday and in the early morning it was nice, but afternoon was terribly hot for hiking. We also have had terrible smoke from a huge fire (520 square miles) about 200 miles south of here.

I was bass fishing about 20 miles north of here in the Green Mountains last week and the colors were already impressive. About 40% of the trees were changing colors. Beautiful. And this photo is exquisite!

The angle of sun must be great when giving the light. What captured my eyes in Your beautiful photo is the reddish color. What it is? Here in Finland in its most Northern part, generally on week 36, there the ground is reddish. It is caused by the plant called Alpine Bearberry, Mountain Bearberry, Black Bearberry (Latin name: Arctostaphylos alpina).

The red leaves are on the huckleberry plants, mostly Vaccinium membranaceum I believe. Interestingly, we don’t have Alpine bearberry Arctostaphylos alpinea here. We have a relative, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi common name “Common bearberry”, but it is an evergreen!

The contrasts within a forest are interesting, aren’t they! A few miles to the west of this there is another big contrast created by a large stand of cedar trees, forming an entirely different ecological setting.

Fall seems to have sneaked up on us this year. Maybe it was all the smoke we’ve endured all summer long. Here I’ve been waiting for a return to summer skies, and in the meantime missed the first signs of autumn. Looking forward to more of your autumn color pictures

I know the level of smoke you’ve had down there has to have been distracting to say the least! I’ve felt for you and for the folks in the Bitterroot! We have had plenty of smoke too, but not as much as there, and when we have our prevailing breeze, it comes out of the southwest and clears the smoke out too.

The color change has only just begun with a few species and it’s still very hot in the daytime. In a week it is supposed to cool down to more normal for this time of year and I hope that will be reflected in the leaves.